Aim: This study was aimed at finding the occurrence rate of prescription errors in the outpatients' prescriptions written by faculty and non-faculty physicians practicing in Shiraz, Iran. Method: In this cross-sectional study 2000 outpatient prescriptions were randomly collected from pharmacies affiliated with Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (SUMS) and social security insurance in Shiraz,...

BACKGROUND Opioids are widely prescribed for their analgesic properties. Chronic opioid use is a persistent problem in the US. Nevertheless, little is known about its prescribing and utilization patterns and overall expenditures. OBJECTIVE This study examined secular trends in opioid prescription drug utilization and expenditures, along with factors associated with opioid prescription drug us...

The purpose of the current study is to find theoretical explanations for human substance misuse, specifically focusing on prescription drug misuse by college students. Little empirical research has considered how certain theories predict the likelihood of non-medical prescription drug use. Both Self-Control Theory and Social Control Theory can be applied to explain why college students choose t...

OBJECTIVES (1) To estimate the cost of irrational prescribing, and (2) to compare the effect of three different kinds of user fee on prescribing costs, in rural Nepal. METHODS A controlled before-after study was conducted in 33 government primary health care facilities in rural eastern Nepal during 1992-95. A fee per prescription (covering all drugs in whatever amounts) was regarded as the co...

The emergence of clinically efficacious prescription drugs to treat pain, anxiety, and learning disorders is accompanied by the potential for nonmedical use. Prescription drug abuse has become a modern-day epidemic in the United States and is now second only to marijuana use across all age groups. This article reviews the various data collection, analysis, and reporting systems that have been d...

In December 2008, 8 in 10 rural Medicare beneficiaries had creditable prescription drug coverage, and over half of these beneficiaries were enrolled in a prescription drug coverage option offered through the Medicare Part D program (Figure 1). However, the array of coverage patterns for rural and urban beneficiaries is strikingly different. Rural beneficiaries are more likely to enroll in stand...

This study applies the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) "fair-balance disclosure" provision to examine the content of prescription drug websites, specifically focusing on the quantity and quality of risk information. The results show that even though most prescription drug websites provide both risk and benefit information, the two types of information are presented differently. This stud...

Prescription drug abuse is a leading cause of accidental death in the United States. Prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) are a popular initiative among policy makers and a key tool to combat the prescription drug epidemic. This editorial discusses the limitations of PDMPs, future approaches needed to improve the effectiveness of PDMPs, and other approaches essential to curbing the ris...

BACKGROUND Reimbursement for outpatient prescription drugs is not mandated by the Canada Health Act or any other federal legislation. Provincial governments independently establish reimbursement plans. We sought to describe variations in publicly funded provincial drug plans across Canada and to examine the impact of this variation on patients' annual expenditures. METHODS We collected inform...